30 Ways to Creatively Engage with your Illness

It’s easy to lose interest in life when you’re consumed with pain, depression and other awful symptoms. I’ve found engaging with my illnesses and experience creatively very empowering.

You don’t have to be the next Van Gough, Ansel Adams, Sylvia Plath, PewDiePie or Alicia Keys to be creative. I have compiled a list if ‘creative’ things you can have a go at, even if you think you suck.

By creative, I mean expressing yourself in an imaginative, artistic, innovative, inspirational, personal or unique way. You can ‘creatively engage’ with your illness by using any creative medium to:

process the pain and grief your illness has caused;

externalise overwhelming feelings;

articulate acceptance;

rest and relax;

create awareness about your illness;

reach out for support;

distract yourself for a while;

innovate a way to re-engage with an activity your illness has prevented you from doing;